Eyehategod Guitarist on Late Drummer: ‘Joey Would Have Never Wanted Us to Quit Playing’

One of 2013's biggest tragedies was the death of Eyehategod drummer Joey LaCaze. A longtime innovator in the sludge metal community, LaCaze was mourned by many after passing away from respiratory failure. Although LaCaze is no longer with us, Eyehategod are determined to continue on, planning to release a new album this April.

In an interview with The Rock Pit, Eyehategod guitarist Jimmy Bower addressed the band's future. "Joey would have never wanted us to quit playing; we knew that for a fact," says Bower. "So as opposed to sitting around bummed out, we just got into a room pretty fast with Aaron and started learning as much as we could. We got 22 songs down, so we're stoked, man. It's good to be playing shows again. We miss Joey big time — we will always miss Joey — but we're also excited about the new chapter in the band."

Bower continues, "We felt like we were doing really good when Joey was still alive because in 2008 we were doing a lot of touring and stuff like that but I guess with this new chapter, we played in New York and Chicago and people are really supportive and cool and just happy that we continued on. So we've just been kinda taking that and using that as our fuel. That's cool and we love this band, we don't know what to fucking do with ourselves when we're not in this band."

LaCaze's playing will also be featured on Eyehategod's next album, having recorded the drum tracks before his passing. Keep your ears open for Eyehategod's new album, which will tentatively see an April release.